Cooking with creativity

Cooking with creativity

Cooking with creativity

Our new columnist Pete Evans shares his journey to becoming an innovative and inventive chef and how creativity has enriched his life.

Creativity is something that I felt I lacked for such a large part of my younger life.

I was one of those people who was extremely happy doing maths, science and accounting at school (left-brain stuff). But when it came to art, creative writing and anything to do with imagination (right brain), I felt like I didn’t have any talent.

As with everything I do in life, I decided to face my creative fears: I opened a restaurant and since then I have been pushing myself to be creative on a daily basis.

I won’t say it has been easy – I have had many disasters and dishes that never made it onto the menu. But I have also had so many positive experiences with dishes I have created; I’ve also found there are many other beneficial spin-offs of being creative in my day-to-day life. It’s very enriching.

It is no secret that I follow a paleo-inspired lifestyle (I don’t eat two of the food groups, grains and dairy, that our dietary guidelines believe we should), so you can see how being creative with my diet is definitely a big plus.

One dish that is really changing the idea that things should be left the way that they are is this amazing cauliflower fried “rice”, which has no rice in it whatsoever. Instead, the grain is replaced by pulverised cauliflower. If you cook this dish, I promise you that it will become a weeknight staple in your home as it is five times quicker to make than normal fried rice, has much more nutritional value than its predecessor and the whole family will feel satiated, and not bloated, afterwards.

Keep cooking creatively, with love and laughter.

CREATIVE TIP

Substitute the cauliflower for broccoli for an instant hit of vitamins, calcium and iron.